Contact your California Legislators. Call, email, and send them letters to show your support of a single-payer system / improved and expanded Medicare for All. List of CA Senators | List of CA Assemblymembers And don’t forget to register to vote (or re-register if you have recently moved): https://registertovote.ca.gov/.
Write a Letter to the Editor or Op-Ed piece. Submit it to your local paper. Or write to your local paper pointing out how a single-payer system could alleviate the problem described in a particular news story. See some examples
Sign up for Alerts. Stay in the loop on breaking news and calls to action related to single-payer universal healthcare in California. We value your time and promise not to flood your inbox! Sign up for Alerts
Join / Donate to HCA. We are proud to be a volunteer-led organization, but we need funds to keep our organization up and running. Funds allow us to produce materials, organize public events, maintain electronic communication with supporters, support single payer candidates, and more. Join / Donate Now! (You can always do both. Joining as a member provides extra support for HCA chapters. Donating benefits the overall organization.)
Follow HCA-CA on social media. We’re on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram. Share our posts with your friends. This is a grassroots movement and we need as many people as possible advocating for improved and expanded Medicare for All!
Volunteer with your local chapter. Local chapters are the backbone of HCA-CA. They activate people at a grassroots level by helping them understand not only how single-payer will improve their lives, but also how they can help make it happen. Local chapters organize panel discussions, host single-payer movie nights, table at markets and fairs, send speakers to groups, meet with local legislators, and a variety of other activities. Find your local chapter
Invite a speaker. Contact us to line up a speaker. Then host a house party with neighbors, family, friends and colleagues. Or get us a spot on the meeting agenda of a group you belong to.
Seek endorsements. Ask businesses, city councils, school boards, community groups, and influential individuals to endorse a single-payer bill. Assist them in submitting their endorsements.
Arrange a screening of a healthcare film. You can do this through a local chapter or on Zoom if there’s no chapter near you. Invite friends to watch a healthcare film or arrange a screening for your group. An HCA advocate can introduce it and field questions afterward. Entertaining and educational!
Fix It: Healthcare at the Tipping Point (Run time is 58 minutes or 41 minutes.) This documentary takes an in-depth look into how our dysfunctional health care system is damaging our economy, suffocating our businesses, discouraging physicians and negatively impacting on the nation’s health, while remaining un-affordable for a third of our citizens. This film was two years in the making, with more than forty voices advocating for reform, including: activists, health policy experts, economists, physicians, nurses, patients, business and labor leaders. Visit https://fixithealthcare.com/ to learn more and stream this film for free.
Power to Heal: Medicare and the Civil Rights Revolution (Run time is 56 minutes.) Power to Heal tells a poignant chapter in the historic struggle to secure equal and adequate access to healthcare for all Americans. Central to the story is the tale of how a new national program, Medicare, was used to mount a dramatic, coordinated effort that desegregated thousands of hospitals across the country practically overnight. Visit http://powertoheal.bullfrogcommunities.com/ for details and screening information (there is a nominal charge for screenings).
Now is the Time: Healthcare for Everybody (Run time is 71 minutes or 35 minutes.) This documentary film honors the healthcare activists who have been taking actions for a long time without seeing immediate effects, and gives us hope that indicates that there is a way through once we reach a certain tipping point. This 70-minute documentary explores key questions: 1) Why has a single-payer system not passed the US Congress, or even been considered? 2) How does a single payer save money? 3) What is being done to clear the misperceptions that keep us from moving forward? Visit https://nowisthetimemovie.net/ for details and screening information (there is a nominal charge for screenings).
The Healthcare Movie (Released in 2011. Run time is 65 minutes.) This documentary provides the real story of how the health care systems in Canada and the United States evolved to be so completely different, when at one point they were essentially the same. Most people under the age of 50, in both countries, are not aware of the intensity of the political struggle that led to the universal medical care system in Canada. Nor are they aware of the public relations campaigns, still active today, that have been prevalent in the United States since the early 1900’s to dissuade the public from supporting national health care. Visit http://thehealthcaremovie.net/ for and screening information (there is a nominal charge for screenings).
